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Canadian Taxpayers Federation warns Trans-Mountain sale could leave taxpayers on the hook for billions

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation calls the $4.5 billion offer from the Trudeau government to buy the Trans-Mountain pipeline “surreal.”

CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick warns it is not just the sale price but taxpayers will now shoulder the cost of building the pipeline, which he says could be significant.

“Well it could be $15 billion of money we don’t have and never planned to spend. Which originally was going to be paid for by a private company who was willing to do it. Yet here we are now because of the failure of primarily the federal government to just enforce the law. We are now stuck in a situation where Canadian taxpayers are paying the price.”

Wudrick says in this transaction “Kinder Morgan took them to the cleaners.”

He says taxpayers cannot afford this bail out.

“We have seen this movie before. We have seen it with Bombardier. We have seen it with the auto bail outs. All of these so called investments cause taxpayers billions of dollars. This is the mother of all corporate welfare bail outs and it was completely unnecessary. We support the pipeline. Most Canadian businesses support the pipeline. There was no need to have taxpayers come to the rescue if the Government of Canada had just stepped up and passed legislation to enforce the law.”

Wudrick says by saying they want to be short term owners the Trudeau government has compounded its mistake by putting itself in a terrible negotiating position with any prospective buyer.